London saw a hate crime every 20 minutes as religious hatred recorded by police in England and Wales reached a record high, new figures show.
There were 7,164 such offences recorded by forces across the two nations – excluding the Metropolitan Police – in the year to March, up three per cent from 6,973 in the previous 12 months.
This was the highest annual total logged, the Home Office said exactly one week on from the Manchester synagogue terror attack.
Ministers said anti-Muslim hatred was up by 19 per cent, noting a spike in offences after the Southport murders of two girls last summer and the riots which followed across several English towns and cities.
Excluding the Met, religious hate crimes targeted at Jewish people and recorded by the other forces in England and Wales fell by 18 per cent, from 2,093 to 1,715.
But the Home Office cautioned that the Met had 40 per cent of all anti-Jewish offences in the last year despite a change in its recording system.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said Jewish and Muslim communities “continue to experience unacceptable levels of often violent hate crime”.
She added: “Today’s hate crime statistics show that too many people are living in fear because of who they are, what they believe, or where they come from.
“I will not tolerate British people being targeted simply because of their religion, race, or identity.”
There were 23,228 hate crimes logged by the Met and City of London Police in the year to March 2025, around 63 per day or three every single hour, down from 27,673 the year before.
Around 16,663 related to race, 2,946 to religion, 2,870 to sexual orientation, 429 to disability and 320 to transgender people.
That compares to 21,113 for race, 3,796 religion, 3,737 sexual orientation, 592 disability and 526 transgender in 2023/24.
Imam Qari Asim, co-chairman of the British Muslim Network, said: “Whether it is Islamophobia, antisemitism or any form of bigotry, we must confront it together – with unity and courage, not silence.”
The Community Security Trust, which monitors antisemitism in the UK, recorded 1,521 anti-Jew incidents across the UK in the first half of 2025.
This was the second highest total ever reported to the organisation in the first six months of any year, but it was down by a quarter from the record high of 2,019 incidents recorded between January and June 2024.
Reports to the CST of antisemitism reached a record high in 2023 at 4,296 – the year that saw the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel and the subsequent military action in the region that has continued since.
Meanwhile, anti-Muslim hate monitoring group Tell Mama said it received a total of 913 reports between June and September this year, with references made to 17 mosques and Islamic institutions being targeted within that period.
The organisation added that in the seven days following Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom rally – which saw more than 100,000 people turn out in central London as well as around 5,000 anti-racism demonstrators on September 13 – it received reports of 157 anti-Muslim hate.
Suresh Grover, founder of the anti-racist charity The Monitoring Group, said the figures do not give the full picture of hate crime experienced by some communities.
“Your colour has become your passport or your nationality,” he told BBC News.
Akeela Ahmed, chief executive The British Muslim Trust, said: “Hate crime against any community – from the Peacehaven firebomb to the Manchester synagogue attack, the targeting of mosques to the violence we saw last summer – damages us all.
“The British Muslim Trust stands in solidarity with all victims of prejudice and against hatred. Britain is and remains a largely tolerant and open country. We need to protect this important tradition and invest in overcoming all forms of hatred and bringing communities together.”
Green MP Carla Denyer added the “shocking” figures “should be a wake-up call – that when politicians fan the flames of hatred and division, it is real people who suffer the very real consequences”.
Scotland Yard was approached for comment.
